Call of the Valkyrja
by Songstress on the Starry Lake
Summary: The first MMORPG to utilize virtual reality is being released. Curiosity getting the better of him, Kai tries this game out. However, on the day of the game's launch, a mysterious hacker hijacks the game's servers and threatens the lives of every player logged in. Now, to log off, Kai must fight for his survival and worse of all – Tyson & Max are now his enemies.
1. Happy Belated April Fool's Day

******Please note: Although placed under Drama and Friendship, this will contain elements from all the following genres: Drama, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Mecha, Friendship and Romance.**  


******While technically not AU, this will possess somewhat of a feel that AU stories might give.**

**********Other than that, please read & review, and enjoy!**

* * *

**CHAPTER ONE  
**

**~ Happy Belated April Fool's Day ~**

* * *

Call of the Valkyrja

By Ouron Entertainment

An action-filled, medieval-styled, fantasy MMORPG that will give new and experienced players alike a dynamic and unforgettable experience…

One of the game's main features unlike that of any other: A dive into an unforgettable and beautifully rendered world of virtual reality.

…Or so that is what is advertised on the game's package.

Kai Hiwatari, the seventeen year old grandson of the head of a major military company in Japan, sits at his desk staring at the packaging of the game as a grandfather clock on the other side of the room strikes midnight. The first day of April has just ended.

Earlier the same day, Kai had paid a visit to his friend and teammate, Tyson. The day started off pretty usual with absolutely nothing out of the ordinary – the streets were as quiet or as loud as they should be, the people were behaving as they normally would. He might admit that one particular store he passed was quite unusually packed, but once in a while, it's nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, there was probably some event going on there. Of course, whatever it was wasn't any of his business…or so he believed.

It was when he arrived at the dojo where Tyson resides that he started to notice something rather…unusual. Apparently something new was coming out and it had his entire group of friends all excited. Tyson was practically drooling over Dizzi's screen at the promotional video, Kenny was unusually amazed, Max was excited as well, Daichi was practically ecstatic about whatever it was, and even Ray and Hilary were hovering over them to watch whatever it was.

Still, Kai didn't care about any of it. Whatever it was they were looking at with such fascination was probably just some stupid matter in entertainment, after all. Maybe some video game. That's right, probably just a dumb new game.

No. Of all the things it was, it wasn't just a "dumb new game".

The moment the group had noticed Kai's arrival, Tyson immediately jumped up to Kai and grabbed him towards Kenny's computer to show him what they were all looking at. It was then that Kai realized, he was right…to some extent. It _was_ a new game. However, it was not like any game he had seen or played. This one was the first to realize the concept of virtual reality so famously depicted in many works of science fiction.

This…got Kai interested. After all, how many games per year come out boasting virtual reality as one of its main features and selling points? Besides, the graphics and game play mechanics for this game was really good from what he could see. The character customization was vast yet beautifully realistic; the combat system was flexible and much like how one would fight in the real world. There were even a large number of ways to customize and build your character beyond simple appearances. The game also seemed rich with content from what the promotional video has introduced too. Not that he'd care about that part though since he wouldn't have time to play it for too long…

After a while of watching him watch the video, Tyson asked enthusiastically, "So Kai, what do you think?"

Kai turned from the video to him despite his urge to keep watching the remaining five minutes of the gamemakers interview. "Hm?"

"You wanna try the game with us?" Tyson asked. "You see, there are five factions in the game called nations and Max and I are just thinking we should all play together in the Wind nation."

Kai pondered on that offer for a little while. "I don't know…"

"Well, no sweat." Tyson told him. "If you ever decide to play, just give us a heads up, okay buddy?"

After that, Kai could not help but think about Tyson's offer. Maybe he should just try the game. How much harm could it do? True, the game wasn't fully free. It required a onetime payment of ten thousand yen but his family makes _much, much, much_ more than that per year. Besides, Kai was pretty sure neither his grandfather nor himself would ever miss that money anyway. After all, that amount equated roughly to about a hundred in U.S. dollars. How much does a military jet from his family's company sell for again? He decided to buy a copy of the game.

And now…

Here he is.

Kai stares at the installation window on his computer screen.

98.5% Progress

99.1% Progress

…100.0% Complete

A window pops up now to prompt Kai to connect and install the hardware required for the virtual reality console. He complies and follows the directions on the package box and on his screen.

After all of that is done, Kai puts on the required headset and in a matter of seconds, he enters the character customization realm – a realm very much resembling deep space with thousands of glittering stars, colorful nebulae, swirling galaxies and an array of colored lights and shapes.

He looks down for a moment. Not only is he floating in this space-like environment but his own body seems to be glowing as well.

As he admires the mystifying and awesome scene of space, a floating, semitransparent, glowing keyboard appears before him. A computerized female voice then follows, "Please enter your desired character name."

Kai stares at the floating keyboard for a little while. While he's aware that some people have a habit of using some crazy or rude names, he didn't have a particular desire for that. He was never into the idea of making up a name to make himself sound or look like some hotshot or magical wise guy either. He decides, 'Hm…I think I'll just use my own name.'

He enters, "Kai."

"Name accepted. Checking for name availability." The voice says. After a moment, it announces, "Availability confirmed. You may use this name."

The floating keyboard now disappears. Fourteen figures appear around him next.

"Please select the race and gender you wish to play." The voice tells him. "If you wish to know more about any of the races, simply approach the race of interest to learn more. To select a race and gender, approach the appropriate figure and say, 'Select'."

Kai looks around. There seems to be seven playable races for him to choose from and obviously, two genders. There are two figures that are clearly human…or something close. He motions towards them to learn more. As he does, a voice coming from one of the figures speaks to him.

"Greetings Player, we are the human race. We are the last race to come into existence and the most versatile in our talents. Our racial attribute is called Full Balance – no particular strengths nor weaknesses."

Of course, with no reason to choose them off the bat, Kai moves from them to the race right next to them. This next race is tall, slender and blond with pointy ears. They are probably elves…maybe. Kai didn't really get to see the entirety of the promotional video so he can't really be sure what they are called. Like the humans, they too give him a greeting.

"Player, we are the Elves, an ancient race second only to the Giants in age and wisdom. While our constitution and magical capacity is relatively unimpressive, our speed and agility is unrivaled throughout the land. Our racial attribute is called Light's Essence."

Kai moves on. Next to the elf-like race is another elf-like race but somewhat sinister looking and grayish, ashen skinned. While Kai likes their sense of fashion somewhat, he didn't really like their pointy ears very much. They too, give him a greeting:

"Player, we are the Dark Elves. Though our race was originally one with the Elves, we have split from them long ago when our spiritual leader enlightened us and led us away from their naïve beliefs. While it is unfortunate that we share the weaknesses of our foolish cousins, our culture centers on strength and magical aptitude. Our racial attribute is the Dark Moon."

The next race is…green. Very green. They also appear to be noticeably primitive in their choice for clothing and seem to be a tad bit big and ugly. Nonetheless, Kai hears them out anyway just to find out what they are.

"RAWR! We are the mighty Orcs! Though we were formerly slaves of the Marii, through our will and strength, we have freed ourselves from them and their accursed magic. While we have neither immense speed nor magical talent, we are the strongest and most strong willed in the land. Our racial attribute is our Iron Will."

Since he never intended to choose the Orcs, Kai moves onto the next race.

Unfortunately for him, this seems like a poor option as well. The fifth race is the Dwarves. He takes a look at the remaining races of Beastmen and Marii. Deciding he didn't care for any of the fantasy races, he goes with the most generic option – the human male.

"Select."

"Choice accepted."

The fourteen figures then disappear and two almost identical clones of him appear. One of them is clad in leather armor wielding a sword while the other is wearing rather light clothing and holds a staff.

The voice now asks, "Please select a starting class. You will be able to customize your class further as you advance within the game. To select a class, approach the appropriate figure and say, 'Select'"

Deciding to go with the fighter for now, Kai says, "Select."

"Choice accepted."

The two clones of him now disappear and a set of leather armor and sword is equipped onto him. A color wheel, a set of designs, sliders and another clone of him then appears.

The voice continues, "Please customize your character's appearance. If you make a mistake, please say 'Default' to start over from your real life image. When you are certain of your desired appearance, please say, 'Finish'."

Kai stares hard at the options for a moment. Playing around with a few of them and previewing it on the clone in front of him, he decides to announce "Default" to the computer. He didn't see much reason to change his looks anyway since he's perfectly fine with how he looks in real life. To finalize it, he says, "Finish."

"Are you sure this is the character name, race, gender and appearance you wish to use?" the voice asks.

"Yes." Kai replies.

The color wheel, textures, sliders and the preview clone disappear as well now. Kai is next shown a large, three dimensional map with five areas highlighted in different colors.

"Would you like to select a nation to belong to now?" the voice asks. "If not, you may select it later. To learn more about any of the nations, please simply point to it on the map. To select a nation to belong to, point to it and say, 'Select'. To make your selection later, say 'Skip'."

Now Kai recalls that Tyson had mentioned something about a Wind nation. He approaches the map and points to each of the five to find this 'Wind nation'. The five nations are: Elegia, a culture-rich kingdom that worships and follows the principles of the goddess Effera, Veniria, the peace loving kingdom devoted to the goddess Sylaina, Aris, the warring land of the god Phyrai, Tiera, the industrious domain of the goddess Meleina, and Aeterna, a holy land of the goddess Vespra.

Kai looks at this, rather puzzled. There doesn't seem to be a 'Wind nation' or if it's there, it's not described as such in the description. Maybe these gods and goddesses are associated with an element? Can't be bothered to log off to check the manual for that, Kai decides he'll pick a nation for now to sample the game. Besides, if the game turns out to not be very entertaining, he'll just stop playing so this shouldn't be a big deal. He can just remake the character if he is in the wrong nation later anyway.

Kai points to the only nation dedicated to a god and announces to the system, "Select."

"Are you sure you wish to select the nation, Aris?" the voice asks.

"Yes." Kai answers.

"Character creation complete. Nation registration complete." The voice says, "You will now enter the world of Yggdrasill. Please enjoy your stay."

After that, everything around Kai becomes white.

...

On the other side of town, Tyson sits before his computer too, watching anxiously as the installation progress bar slowly fills up to 100%. A wide grin is plastered onto his face when a prompt finally pops up to ask him to insert and install his headset.

"Oh man, this will be great!" He says to himself as he follows the directions provided.

Before he puts the headset on though, he dials a call to Max, who picks up shortly.

"Yeah, Tyson?" Max greets him.

"I'm done installing!" Tyson says excitedly.

"Cool. I'm almost done here too." Max tells him. He then asks, "By the way Tyson, what are you going to be called in game?"

Tyson thinks for a little. "Well, if it's not taken already, I'll go with 'Mr. Cool'. You, Maxie?"

Max chuckles at that name a little. "Hm…I'm not sure yet. I might name my character after Draciel."

"Maybe I should name my character Dragoon then." Tyson considers the option out loud.

"Hey don't copy me!" Max protests.

"Hehe, just joking, Max." Tyson assures him. "I'll see you in game, okay? Remember, we're going to play in Veniria."

"'Kay!" Max hangs up.

Tyson hangs up as well and with a smile, he turns back to his computer and puts on the headset. 'I can't wait to play this!'

...

In a white, sterile room, a single girl with long, silver hair clad in white sits on what appears to be a throne of metal. On her head, is a helmet like object connected by an array of wires to the computers and machines scattered about the rest of the room. As the door opens to reveal a tall, Asian man dressed in a navy blue martial arts uniform, she opens her eyes and greets him with her scarlet orbs.

She asks him, "Did uncle send you?"

"Yes," the man replies. "He wants to know if you have completed the takeover of the game system."

"It's almost done. Tell him that." She tells him.

He nods and turns to leave.

The girl then says, "Wait."

"Hm?" the man turns back to her.

"Where is my medication?" she asks.

"I will bring it to you momentarily." He answers.

He then leaves.

...

In the game, Kai stands on the top of a grassy hill overlooking a friendly looking area. After completing character creation, he had been taken to what appears to be a set of temple ruins. The place was apparently some form of instanced tutorial for new players and according to lore, it was supposed to be a dream sent by the Valkyrja to signal to new heroes that they are destined to do great things. Not that Kai cared much for it though; he felt a little silly role-playing as if he was some big shot hero anyway. Now that he is done with it, he has been teleported to one of the many starting areas of the game: a farm currently being raided and pillaged by small, slow, and harmless looking imps.

Kai checks his quest log.

Quest Objective:

Kill five small imps and slay the current Imp King to scare away the remaining raiders.

'Easy enough…' Kai puts away the quest log.

He then proceeds to descend from the hill and attack the indicated quest monsters. In six short sweeps of his sword, he eliminates all six quest monsters, including the imps' leader, the Imp King.

Putting his sword away, Kai comments in his mind, 'Well that was easy.'

He decides he'll log off and go to sleep for the night. He has to check which nation is the 'Wind nation' anyway. Pulling out the system menu and selecting the log out option, he waits to be logged off but is surprised when after the ten second countdown, he is still standing in the lush, green pig farm that serves as his starting area.

'What the…' Kai tries again. 'Is this some kind of glitch? Why can't I log out?'

After fiddling with the system menu for a while, Kai attempts to find a way to contact the game masters, or GMs. However, to his disappointment, despite having searched for about fifteen minutes, it seems there is no way for him to do so.

'You're kidding.' He growls mentally. 'For a game so heavily advertised, their customer support system sure seems to be lacking…or more accurately, inexistent.'

He walks around a little. The scenery he is at seems peaceful. Other than the digital pigs in the field, the only other sounds he can hear is a soft breeze and the rustling of leaves from nearby digital plants. The amazing thing about this is that he can even smell the objects around him.

'Goes to show how much the developers must have spent on the aesthetics….' He assumes.

Soon, however, the serene soundscape is interrupted by an abrupt beep. Kai recalls the tutorial part he had played through and looks around. In the sky, thousands of small silhouettes begin to flood in every direction across the sky, partially blocking out the light. Eventually, the sky begins to clear up and one of the silhouettes, in the form of a small, winged, fluffy sheep fairy, descends towards him.

"New mail! New mail! New mail has arrived for you!" it says, holding out an envelope in its mouth.

Kai takes the envelope from it and it disappears. A parchment soon appears before him and unrolls to display a message. It reads itself out loud,

"Important System Message!

Dear Player,

As of this moment, Call of the Valkyrja is no longer under the control of the administrators of Ouron Entertainment."

'…What…?'

"…From this point on, the log out option has been disabled."

Elsewhere, hearing the same message played out to them in a medieval styled town, Tyson begins to crack up.

"Boy, these GMs sure have a good sense of humor." He comments. "I know it's still April Fools' Day in some countries but I can't believe that they'd actually try _this_ joke."

Max looks around worriedly. To him, the message sure didn't sound very much like a joke. It sounded more like an event. Thinking of his dad, he begins to wonder if he'd get in trouble for staying up all night. Some of the other players around them look puzzled as well.

"Several modifications to the game have been made:

1. You will no longer be able to log off at will…"

A guy standing near Tyson and Max opens up his system menu and selects the log out option. Max watches as the log out's countdown finishes and the guy is still standing in the town square.

"What the hell, I really can't log out!" he exclaims, confused. "Is this some April Fools' event…?"

"…2. Resurrection scrolls and the player skill 'Resurrect' will no longer be able to revive players who have been killed by other players regardless of if it were an act of PK, arena based PVP, a duel between players or mass PVP between clans, alliances and nations."

Kai stops along the road to the nearest town and turns in the direction of two low level players. One of them is looking rather confused while the other player lies on the grass dead.

"Hey I've ressed you three times already, man. Get up! Uhm...hello? Did you go AFK?"

"…3. Leaving your current nation will no longer be possible; Emigration scrolls will no longer be sold in NPC stores and the clan skill 'Exile' will also no longer have any effect."

Tyson, having realized that all of this was more than just a verbal joke, stands with Max at the back of a quickly gathered crowd about an NPC.

"It's not there! The emigration scrolls are really gone!"

"What are they trying to pull?"

"Dude, are you sure this is the NPC that sells them?"

"Of course, it was definitely here when I played during the open beta!"

"…4. From now on, the pain sensors originally adjustable in the gameplay menu will be locked at the highest, most sensitive setting.

5. No nation from this point forward will be able to remain at a state of peace. War will automatically be declared between any nation that is not at war. If a nation is at war with only one other nation, it will no longer be possible for the ruling clan of that nation to end the war."

Kai checks his system messages. Just as announced, moments ago, his current nation of Aris has mutually declared war with the other four nations despite currently being ruled by the default, docile NPC clan.

'What's going on…?'

He reads the rest of the message to himself.

"The stakes in this game have been raised as well. The following conditions now apply to all players:

1. Death by another player will result in death in real life. The headsets that were distributed with the game have been modified from the intended design prior to production to be capable of electrocution of the wearer.

2. Should any external tampering of the headset be detected by the headset's sensors, the electrocution mechanism will also be activated.

3. Should the servers of the game be forced off, all participating players will immediately die.

4. Alternatively, should any player remain disconnected from the servers for more than two hours, the electrocution system will also be activated and the player will also be killed automatically.

5. Should any player remain in town for more than 48 hours real time between town sieges, they will also die."

Tyson gulps now as the message is starting to sound more and more serious and less and less like an April Fools' joke. Beside him Max appears greatly concerned. Some of the surrounding players around them have also started to panic.

"…To log off from the game safely, the following conditions must be cleared:

1. You must not die in game.

2. You must belong to a nation.

3. Your nation must successfully eradicate the other four nations within the time period of eight months real time. Should no nation clear this condition, then all players remaining at the end of the time limit will be electrocuted."

Kai turns back to the two players nearby. The guy on his knees has been trying to get a response from the player on the ground for a while now to no avail. As he is about to give up and move on, Kai approaches them and asks, "Hey, did you fight that guy in PVP just now?"

The guy turns to him, "Yeah, he was in my party and we thought it'd be fun to have a duel a few minutes ago…why?"

Kai now realizes this is no joke. These two players couldn't have checked their mail just now since they were busy dueling. As such, it's not likely that the guy on the ground is just pretending to be dead to tease him. Since in order to leave the game, a player must log out, he also couldn't have been "away from keyboard". That aside, there's also no motive for a gaming company to pull this kind of prank on the launch day of their newest game.

"Check your mail, kid." Kai tells the other player. "There's a pretty important system message you might want to read."

"Finally, as a luxury, every player has been given two items. These two items will be found directly in your respective inventories…"

Tyson and Max both open up their inventories from their menus. Indeed, there are two items there that were not present when they first finished the tutorial.

"…The first item is a character bound box. Should any player succeed in filling up the box with ten of the appropriate kind of medals, they will earn an epic level item that will help them and their nation clear the conditions to log off…"

Kai opens his box to find that it has already been filled with three medals.

"…Inversely it is also possible to lose these medals. Each player will start off with three untradeable medals but should all of the medals disappear from a player's box, that player will be unable to step foot into or remain in any safe zones until they have obtained back at least one medal. In addition, all of their equipment will be downgraded by a maximum of three classes."

Some of the players around Max and Tyson begin to complain now.

"…Three classes? Why so much?..."

"What do they mean by classes?..."

"…What? That's a heavy penalty!"

"The second item is a one-time use item that expires within the next two hours…"

Tyson turns his attention to this second item. Without another thought, he opens it, causing a bright light to engulf him.

"…This item's effects on your character are permanent; it will reset your appearance to that of your default person in real life. Additionally, it will also change your race to 'Human' as well as change your character's gender appropriately."

Max stares at Tyson now, completely taken by surprise by his sudden change in appearance.

"What is it Maxie?" Tyson asks, noticing his dumbfounded expression.

"Uh…Tyson…you're a guy again." Max points out.

"Huh?" Tyson looks down.

"And you're also not a Dark Elf anymore…." Max adds.

Tyson exclaims, "What!? I spent so much time designing my character!"

"The effects of this second item on your chances of clearing the above listed conditions are minimum. It will be your choice whether to use it or to discard it…"

Kai discards his as he already looks the same as his real life self.

"…Now, let the race for survival begin.

-Your new Game Master."

* * *

**Okay, let me know how you liked the opening chapter. ****As always, I will greatly appreciate any feedback you give me. **

**If you have any expectations for this fic, please say so below so I can try to make this even better than what you expect. It is ESSENTIAL to me to hear back from my readers both for encouragement as well as direction. (For those who are shy, you can simply give me a number rating between 1 and 5 so that at least, I have an idea how well or bad I did. Don't worry, I don't flame.)**

**Disclaimer:**

**I. I do not own Beyblade or any of its characters that I use here. **

**II. I do, however, own the plot (and no, before anyone starts this, I am not copying Sword Art Online; this story will go down a very different and dramatic direction once past the starting point). **

**III. Any original concepts and Original Characters (O.C.) that I may feature are also owned by me - Call of the Valkyrja as a game concept and any OCs I may use included. Additionally, all OC character designs and any images I post of them as well as any concept art I do for the game featured here will also be owned by me.  
**

**IV. Any names used here that may coincide with that of a real person(s) are by sheer coincidence. No real person(s) are presented in my work.  
**

**V. Any poetry/song lyrics featured are entirely my own work. Any game or story within this story, unless classical, are also my own.  
**

******VII. I am not writing this fanfic for profit, or to in any way affect the franchise's production or distribution. **


	2. First Encounters

**Hello, sorry for the long wait. Aside from my unignorable urge to update Nornir, I was also spending my time detailing the plot for this story so please forgive the 1 month+ wait. **

**Additionally, I want to announce that in either the next update or the one following, a proper cover picture will be put up for this story. I intend for a larger version of the cover picture to be viewable via my DeviantART account which is linked from my profile. I assure you, my skills in art are pro, so don't even think your eyes will be displeased. :P  
**

**Now without further delay...  
**

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**CHAPTER TWO**

**~First Encounters~**

* * *

Loud footsteps storm up the steps of the wooden interior of a small apartment.

"Kenny!" the voice of a middle aged woman sounds, approaching a closed door.

"Just five more minutes please mom…" A teenager inside the room mumbles in response to the voice.

"Kenny!" the woman bursts in. "Wake up! You'll be late to school if you sleep in any longer."

Kenny turns over and rubs the sleep from his eyes. Getting up sluggishly, he greets his mother, "Mom…? 'Morning…"

"Come on, get dressed and come downstairs. Breakfast is ready for you already." His mother says before returning back down the stairs.

Kenny yawns, taking his time to move his still torpid body off the bed. Nonetheless, he dresses, brushes his teeth and heads downstairs with his laptop.

Upon arriving downstairs for breakfast, Kenny immediately notices that the news is on in the room. Noticing footage from a familiar game shown on the screen, he turns his attention to it while making his way to his seat.

"…Last night, just hours following the launch of the online game, 'Call of the Valkyrja' by Ouron Entertainment, a statement was sent to news networks and personal email accounts worldwide claiming to have taken hostage of the game's 5 million international starting playerbase. Though many treated the threat as a viral hoax or deemed the act impossible, this morning, deaths by electrocution in private homes were reported from all over the world. The total number of deaths so far is unknown but the reports that have been counted so far exceed two hundred thousand and more are still being received…"

Kenny stares at the screen through the messy hair that covers his eyes. An expression of frozen shock dominates his paling countenance. He almost drops his laptop.

"Kenny?" His mother, noticing his horrified look, turns to him. "What's wrong? I get that it's big news but come on, eat your breakfast and go on to school already."

Kenny does not reply but continues to listen to the news report with his eyes glued to the screen.

"…Ouron Entertainment officials claim not to have had any knowledge of the tampering of the released equipment, leading police to believe the alterations to the hardware designs were done by someone on the inside. As such, all members of the game's design team were arrested this morning on suspicion of their involvement in the matter. Ouron Entertainment officials have also released a statement announcing their intent on finding a way to regain control of the servers safely but experts believe the chance of success is extremely low given the intricate traps set around the servers at their headquarters…"

"Kenny?" his mother tries again to get his attention.

Kenny turns away from the screen now but instead of sitting down to have his breakfast, he makes a break for the door of his home.

"Kenny!" His mother calls after him.

The boy dashes out his door and down the street towards Tyson's dojo. In his mind he prays, 'Oh Tyson, please tell me you didn't start that game yet!'

...

In the game, Kai sits on a thick tree branch, scrolling through the player's manual from the help menu.

"So the patron god of this nation is the deity of fire and war…" Kai mutters to himself.

He had known since the announcement five hours ago that the odds that he picked the "Wind" Nation are slim. Now, he can only pray that Tyson didn't start the game yet. If he didn't, then maybe he won't have to worry that they'd have to fight one another.

But suppose Tyson did start the game already with the others. Then what? Will he be forced to fight his friends to survive? Can he opt not to attack? Will he even be able to tell it's them? Everyone was given the option to keep their modified appearances or switch to their default real life looks. What did Tyson choose?

'If they're in Veniria, I'd rather let them be the ones to kill me.' He admits quietly in his mind. After all, they had already saved him once at Lake Baikal back in Russia. As it is, he already owes his life to them. So even if they kill him or let him die this time…

A voice disrupts his thoughts and catches his attention. "Hey, uh…Kai?"

Kai turns to the player at the base of the tree.

It was 'Jason', the player who had already unintentionally killed someone from their nation in what the guy thought was a harmless duel. After taking Kai's advice and reading the message that had been sent by the system, Jason had gone into somewhat of a state of shock in response to the fact that they are now trapped in a virtual reality game. More importantly, the realization that he had killed someone for real left him traumatized and emotionally vulnerable. As such, he had been following Kai around the last few hours due to Kai's seemingly unfazed exterior for support. Of course, Kai has not exactly been worry-free himself and so, hasn't really been a very good companion. Luckily for him, however, it would seem Kai's presence alone must have sufficed.

"I've finished the last part of that quest now…" he tells him.

Kai can tell the guilt of what he had done is still gnawing at him. Even after telling the guy that there was no way he could have known the consequences of his actions, it would seem the weight of what he did and how things will be for them in the game still bugs him.

"Good," Kai says to him. He decides that for now, for both of their sakes, it would probably be best if he at least tries to uphold his usual tough guy image. There's no guarantee yet that he will have to face Tyson or anyone else he knows yet anyway. Getting off the tree branch and landing below on his feet, Kai adds, "Come on, let's continue. We'll need to level up as fast as possible if we want a good chance to defend ourselves from enemy players."

Jason nods and follows him. Although still upset by the turn of events, he seems to be recovering.

Kai takes notice of this and decides to do his part for now.

...

Meanwhile, in Venirian territory, Tyson sits at the edge of a wall in his nation's starting town with Max. An internet browser integrated into the game's interface is opened before them both. A frown grows on Tyson's face as he reads through a news article in the browser window.

"Hm…" Tyson groans softly to himself.

Max turns to him, "What's wrong, Tyson?"

"It's just…when Grandpa hears about this, he'll be so worried for me." He replies. "And what if he doesn't find out in time and he tries to take off the headgear to get me to train or to wake up? I can't bear to imagine how he or Daichi would feel if I died that way…"

Max watches Tyson sulk for a moment about their situation. He shares his own thoughts on the matter, "Well, to be honest…I feel just as worried as you, Tyson. What if my dad doesn't watch the news this morning and tries to take the head gear off? What will happen then to my mom when she finds out what's happened to me? She'd be so heartbroken…"

The two of them fall silent for a moment and stare downwards.

Then, closing the news article from his user menu, Tyson gets up from where he is sitting. He turns to Max, "You know what, Maxie, sitting here and thinking about this isn't doing us one bit of good!"

Max turns to him, smiling weakly. He concurs, "Yeah, you're right."

"How about we go make some levels instead, huh?" Tyson suggests optimistically, getting off the town's walls. "Besides, the fact that we're still talking to one another means that neither your dad nor gramps tried to do anything with us yet and maybe they've already heard of everything that's happened on the news. If that's so, then we can't slack off here either."

Max nods, agreeing. "Yup. Let's get some training done."

Getting off his seat on the wall, he jumps down and joins Tyson. Tyson then opens up his menu again but his expression quickly turns from optimistic to confused.

"Uh…Maxie…?" he turns to Max. "How do we make a party?"

"Uh…" Max turns to his user menu too.

As he is about to search for the way to do it, a voice interrupts them. "You party up by saying a command phrase."

Tyson and Max turn to a tall player by the in-game name, Heroman, standing near them.

"It's just 'Command: Party Invite' and the name of the player you want in your party." He finishes for them with a friendly smile. He then asks, "By the way, if you guys are going farming, mind of I come along?"

Tyson and Max looks at him for a moment. "Farming?"

"Leveling, grinding, you know, killing monsters for experience and loot." He explains the term.

"Oh, sure." Tyson approves.

Max approves also. "We'd love to have you come along."

"Great!" the player, Heroman, responds.

"Alright," Tyson tries out the command phrase he just learned. "Command: Party Invite Draciel! Command: Party Invite Heroman!"

...

Back in the real world at a morning lit dojo, the chirping of birds sound cheerfully as a small red-headed boy consumes the last of his breakfast and runs out of the room down the veranda of the building. A wide grin is plastered on his excited face. As he runs to his destination, he calls out a name.

"TYSOOOOOON!" he calls, throwing the door to a well-kept bedroom wide open. He steps inside calmly now, still grinning. "Ha! So you started the game without me."

Approaching his sleeping friend, he hovers over the older teen and gets ready to remove the headgear on him. He then warns him, "Hehe, ready or not, it's my turn to play now!"

Just as he puts his hands on the device around Tyson's head however, a rapidly approaching voice screaming Tyson's name, catches the younger boy's attention and effectively stops what he's doing.

Daichi turns to the familiar brown haired teen that had just arrived huffing and puffing at the door. "Chief…?"

Kenny looks up from the ground, still huffing and puffing. Upon setting his covered eyes on his friend Tyson, he collapses to the floor in dread. "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

"Huh?" Daichi looks at him confused. "Did you want to play too…?"

"I'm too late…" Kenny wails.

"No you're not." Daichi responds. He turns back to Tyson, "We just take this headgear off him and we can take turns using it to-"

At that moment, Kenny clings desperately to Daichi to pull him away from Tyson.

"Hey!..What are you doing?!" Daichi asks, trying to wriggle free from him. "Chief? Hey, come on, get off of me!"

"You don't understand!" Kenny screams trying to explain.

Behind them at the door, Tyson's grandfather had come to see what the big ruckus was all about.

"Don't understand what?" Daichi asks, turning to Kenny who is half wrapped around him and half on the floor.

"Just don't move or do anything and let me explain." Kenny desperately tries to get Daichi to listen.

He lets go of Daichi when the younger boy nods and opens the lip of his laptop. He types something in quickly before flipping it around to show to the other boy.

Daichi, peeking closer at the screen reads the news article opened before him. A few moments late, he jumps and falls backwards in surprise.

"So you mean…" Daichi stumbles, turning to Tyson. His expression is now a mix of shock and worry.

Tyson's grandfather, curious what this was all about, steps inside now and approaches the two boys in his grandson's room. "Hey little dudes, what are you two freaking out about so early in the morning?"

Kenny grimly turns the laptop screen over for the elderly man to read. A few moments later, the man turns to his grandson and drops his wooden practice sword in shock.

...

In a loosely populated forest in the game, Tyson, Max and Heroman finish off a boar-like monster together with little effort. Stepping back, they each check their system messages to see if it had dropped anything useful. Disappointed by what he saw, Tyson complains.

"This isn't fair! The last one dropped Max a shield…" he complains.

Max turns to him and offers, "Well if you want, I can let you have the shield, Tyson."

Tyson refuses it, but smiles. "Nah, keep it, Maxie. I know you're going to play a tank class so those are probably important for you. What I wanted was a new sword anyway."

"Well, if you say so," Max shrugs with a smile.

"If you want a new sword, how about this one?" Heroman asks them. He summons a sword from his inventory to show to Tyson. "You can check the stats on it if you point to it and say 'Command: Inspect Item'."

Tyson walks up to him and does just that. Impressed with what he sees, he asks, "Are you really gonna let me have this?"

Heroman nods, "Yeah, but for a small price, of course. I'll give it to you for 1k. How about it?"

"1k?" Tyson repeats.

"1,000 Sil." Heroman expands for him.

Tyson in turn, opens his inventory to see how much he has.

"Come on, Tyson, shouldn't you have gotten about 20,000 by now from the quests?" Max asks, surprised he has to check.

"Well…I spent most of it on potions…" Tyson explains.

Heroman holds out the sword to him and says, "Command: Trade Mr. Cool."

Tyson looks up at him, surprised but accepts the trade on the floating prompt. He mutters, "I might not have enough though…"

Heroman smiles, "Hey, don't worry about it. Ten levels later, neither one of us will care very much about 1k anymore, so just take it."

Tyson smiles and accepts the deal on their trade window. "Thanks, man."

"No problem." Heroman tells him. "If you really wanna pay me back, add me to your friendlist."

Tyson smiles. "Will do, buddy."

Heroman turns to Max, "You too, okay?"

Max nods in a friendly manner, "Sure."

Just then, a small beep sounds. Tyson and Max turn to Heroman who look up at the sky in turn. Flying towards the three of them is a small, winged sheep fairy with an envelope in its mouth, saying, "New mail! New mail!"

Taking the envelope from it, Heroman reads the parchment that proceeded to unroll itself before him.

He then turns to his new friends apologetically, "Hey guys, a friend of mine needs something so I gotta go…"

Tyson appears disappointed, "Aww…"

"She says it's somewhat of an emergency." Heroman adds.

"I see," Tyson responds understandingly. "Well, in that case, good luck and thanks again for the sword."

"Anytime," Heroman tells him. He opens his own inventory and scrolls down to where his town teleport scrolls are.

Tyson and Max both watch as he activates it.

"Well, see ya, guys." He says to them, waving a little. "Maybe we can party up again sometime."

"Sure." Tyson tells him. "'Bye."

Tyson and Max wave as they watch him disappear in the teleport scroll's light. When he is gone, they turn to each other.

"He sure was a nice guy," Tyson comments.

Max agrees, "Yup."

...

A werewolf-like creature charges at a ready Kai standing in battle stance with his sword drawn. As the werewolf is about to strike, Kai swings his sword, slashing straight through the monster's torso. The monster's HP drops to zero shortly after and its remains fall to the ground, disintegrating and disappearing soon after. Putting away his weapon, Kai pulls out his quest log. In just the span of one day, he had made ten levels.

Jason, finishing off his own mob, joins Kai.

"I'm done on my part." He says as Kai scrolls through his system messages. "Did we kill enough to finish the quest?"

Kai nods, still going through the list of items he's gained. He notes mentally, 'Nothing useful, huh?'

He closes the logs and would have continued on to the next quest, but Jason takes this chance to make a suggestion.

"Hey Kai," he addresses his calmer companion.

Kai turns to him to see what he needs.

"We've been grinding and doing quests for a while now…I was thinking…" he begins but fades off, a little intimidated by Kai's rather serious exterior.

Kai, waiting for him to continue, asks, "Well?"

"I…it was just…" he struggles. He eventually takes a deep breath and just says it. "I was just thinking if we could have a small break!"

Kai is surprised this one line took him so much effort to say. After all, if it was Tyson, this would have already been said several times in the form of a complaint or some form of whining. He nods nonetheless in response, not seeing it beneficial to overwork himself or his companion. Besides, not only are the two of them currently amongst the top ten highest percentage of players in their nation but Kai has not even slept since the night before due to having stayed up to figure his situation out. He figures he might as well take this time to rest.

...

Soon finding an empty, relatively safe spot to camp, Kai uses a campfire item that had been given as a reward for one of their quests. The item allows energy regeneration in the field, according to the item description. While the quest from which it came did demonstrate its effect somewhat, Kai never did notice how much the energy bar on his character screen decreased. According to the manual, the energy bar, located under his HP and MP bar dictates the rate at which he is able to gain experience and the amount of experience he loses should he die in at the hands of a monster.

'Guess this break was more worthwhile than I had thought.' Kai mentally comments.

He turns over to Jason who seems to be fiddling through his inventory for something. It would seem the day of grind had cheered him up somewhat. The guy is no longer just stuck frozen to a spot and crying about what he did for starters. That aside, according to the news articles he read earlier, authorities worldwide did announce that they plan to pardon any act of killing that were facilitated or forced upon the players. This would certainly include Jason's case since the guy had no idea the game's servers were hijacked at the time of the duel.

"There they are!" Jason announces cheerfully as he locates a bundle of items and summons them to his hand from his inventory.

Kai turns his attention to the bundle which Jason proceeds to open.

Splitting some of the stack, he holds it out to Kai. "Here. Command: Trade Kai."

Kai accepts the trade and proceeds to read the item description upon completion of their transaction.

"Sautéed Meat Plate

This item restores a player's nutrition points by 20% over 300 seconds. Any item of the same kind cannot be used within 330 seconds of this item's consumption. This item's effects are canceled upon entering combat mode."

Curious how his nutrition bar is doing, Kai checks his character screen again. It would seem his battle stats and HP have been somewhat lowered as a result of low nutrition. He turns to Jason, "Thanks,"

Jason responds somewhat cheerfully, "No problem."

As they begin to eat, Jason adds, "You know, most of the new players have probably still not figured out the food part yet."

Hearing that part, Kai asks, "Are you not new here?"

"I was hired to beta test the game." Jason responds. He then admits, "It was why I tried to duel that other guy. I thought since I already had experience with the game's combat system, I'd win."

Kai watches as the regretful expression returns on Jason's countenance.

"And win I did." Jason continues. "You know I've been playing MMOs for years now. I loved the competition in PVP heavy games. You know…player versus player? When I first tried this game out, I was superhyped about it. I thought, for the first time, I'd get to role-play realistically and when I win in PVP, it won't just be me staring at some pixelated image of my victory anymore. I'd be able to feel what a war hero would feel for real…That the glory from my victories would feel real even if the event is just something set up in a game. But instead…"

Kai watches him as he trails off. The effects of the meat they consumed are beginning to wear off now. Noticing the guy's worsening emotional condition, Kai tells him, "Don't think about it."

Jason turns to him.

"Our first priority right now should be our survival." Kai goes on. "If you're going to feel this way, what will you do when players from enemy nations attack us? Are you planning to let them kill you?"

The question, however, leads to another one for Kai himself: What will _he_ do if Tyson is indeed playing this game? Will he really just let himself be killed by his best friend?

"I don't plan to be killed." Jason answers him, disrupting his thoughts in regards to that question. "I can't bear to imagine how my mom would feel if I let it happen."

Kai returns his attention to the guy.

"Her birthday is actually coming up this week." Jason goes on. "I was planning on making it a big celebration for her."

Amused, Kai adds, "Well I guess you'll be waiting for next year."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Jason chuckles a little. "I hope I'll be able to celebrate with her then. Maybe we'd get saved or something and we'd be able to log off sooner than the eight months if we're lucky."

The two of them sit silently for a little while. Eventually, Jason starts up a conversation again with Kai.

"Say, where are you from?" Jason asks. He then tells him, "I'm from the U.K."

Kai answers him, "Japan."

"Japan, huh?" He then comments, "Nice country. I was actually planning on visiting there with my mom sometime. She's always been fascinated by East Asian cultures. I think it's wonderful that this game works by interpretation of the player's brainwaves so that people across the world who would otherwise have trouble communicating with each other can speak with one another like we're doing."

"I guess so." Kai agrees with him passively.

"You're not very talkative, huh?" Jason points out.

Kai responds with silence.

There is another pause.

Kai's attention wanders back to his own doubts for a moment before Jason decides to strike up another conversation, this time, sounding more serious. "By the way Kai,"

Kai turns back to him.

"When I beta tested the game, I noticed that the level progression becomes exponentially slower every five levels." He tells him. He then points out, "Right now, we're at level 15. There's a boss at the end of a dungeon in neutral territory that we can try. We should have enough Sil to teleport there and back. The experience from that boss should be enough to raise our levels up to about 20. It'd be a quick way to level up through these five levels. What do you think?"

Kai thinks for a moment. Can they even handle a boss yet? Their quests haven't required them to fight any real bosses so far. The guy does have experience from beta testing. He decides to trust him on it and give it a shot. After all, resurrection scrolls and town respawns work if the player has not been killed by another player.

He agrees to it with a nod. "We'll give it a shot."

"Great!" Jason responds happily to it. "Let's head back to town to get ready and rest up for it then."

Kai nods, getting his town return scrolls out.

Soon, the two of them disappear from the fields in a bright flash of light.

* * *

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